EP0182496A2 - Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Farbmessung - Google Patents

Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Farbmessung Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0182496A2
EP0182496A2 EP85307425A EP85307425A EP0182496A2 EP 0182496 A2 EP0182496 A2 EP 0182496A2 EP 85307425 A EP85307425 A EP 85307425A EP 85307425 A EP85307425 A EP 85307425A EP 0182496 A2 EP0182496 A2 EP 0182496A2
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
sensors
surface reflectance
spectral
representing
reflectance
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP85307425A
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English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0182496B1 (de
EP0182496A3 (en
Inventor
Brian A. Wandell
Laurence T. Maloney
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Leland Stanford Junior University
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Leland Stanford Junior University
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Publication of EP0182496A3 publication Critical patent/EP0182496A3/en
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Publication of EP0182496B1 publication Critical patent/EP0182496B1/de
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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01J—MEASUREMENT OF INTENSITY, VELOCITY, SPECTRAL CONTENT, POLARISATION, PHASE OR PULSE CHARACTERISTICS OF INFRARED, VISIBLE OR ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT; COLORIMETRY; RADIATION PYROMETRY
    • G01J3/00—Spectrometry; Spectrophotometry; Monochromators; Measuring colours
    • G01J3/28—Investigating the spectrum
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01J—MEASUREMENT OF INTENSITY, VELOCITY, SPECTRAL CONTENT, POLARISATION, PHASE OR PULSE CHARACTERISTICS OF INFRARED, VISIBLE OR ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT; COLORIMETRY; RADIATION PYROMETRY
    • G01J3/00—Spectrometry; Spectrophotometry; Monochromators; Measuring colours
    • G01J3/46—Measurement of colour; Colour measuring devices, e.g. colorimeters
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01J—MEASUREMENT OF INTENSITY, VELOCITY, SPECTRAL CONTENT, POLARISATION, PHASE OR PULSE CHARACTERISTICS OF INFRARED, VISIBLE OR ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT; COLORIMETRY; RADIATION PYROMETRY
    • G01J3/00—Spectrometry; Spectrophotometry; Monochromators; Measuring colours
    • G01J3/46—Measurement of colour; Colour measuring devices, e.g. colorimeters
    • G01J3/462—Computing operations in or between colour spaces; Colour management systems
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01J—MEASUREMENT OF INTENSITY, VELOCITY, SPECTRAL CONTENT, POLARISATION, PHASE OR PULSE CHARACTERISTICS OF INFRARED, VISIBLE OR ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT; COLORIMETRY; RADIATION PYROMETRY
    • G01J3/00—Spectrometry; Spectrophotometry; Monochromators; Measuring colours
    • G01J3/46—Measurement of colour; Colour measuring devices, e.g. colorimeters
    • G01J2003/467—Colour computing

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a method of, and apparatus for, determining colour by estimating the spectral reflectance of surfaces of an object and the relative spectral power of the ambient light.
  • a method of determining the colour of an object from the surface spectral reflectances of the object and the relative spectral powers of the ambient light comprising reading the response of at least N+1 sensor classes to an illuminated object, and recovering N parameters describing the surface reflectance of the object, the surface properties being described separately from the illuminant of the object, N representing the number of components (degrees of freedom) of surface reflectance of the object.
  • apparatus for determining the colour of an object from the surface spectral reflectances of the object and the relative spectral power of the light using N parameters representing the number of components of surface reflectance, comprising N+l sensors responsive to light reflected from the object, means for reading the response of the sensors to the illuminated object, and means for recovering N parameters describing the surface reflectance of the object separately from the illuminant of the object.
  • the light reflected from an object under study is sensed and the spectral composition of the ambient light illuminating the object is separately calculated, the surface reflectance of the object then being determined from the sensed and calculated values.
  • the ability to separate the effect of the ambient lighting from the effects of surface reflectance permits the construction of a number of devices that are of value in many different areas, including robotics (computer vision), photography, colour measurement and matching, television, video cameras, video recorders and colour image processing and correction systems.
  • robotics visual systems that wish to use surface spectral reflectance (i.e. colour) to aid in object recognition and identification must be able to effectively discount any variation in the ambient light.
  • surface spectral reflectance i.e. colour
  • the present invention provides a method and apparatus which allows a robot a capability for accurately estimating the surface reflectance properties of objects under study, despite incomplete knowledge of the ambient light.
  • a common problem in photography is that different types of film must be used for photography under different lighting conditions.
  • the present invention provides a method of acquiring and/or processing colour images, so that images photographed under one type of ambient light can be reconstructed as though they were shot under a different ambient light, thereby eliminating the need to use different films for different ambient light conditions.
  • the present invention provides a method which enables the building of a light meter that can estimate the spectral properties of the ambient light, and use the results to advise photographers what type of colour filter should be used on the camera to properly correct for the film loaded in their camera, or automatically to provide the appropriate colour filter. From this it is possible to incorporate sensors into optical cameras so that proper acquisition, recording, processing, correction and transmission of colour images for television displays, video displays, video recording, and other outputs or displays can be carried out.
  • Another problem involving the perception of surface properties of materials has to do with the use of textile dyes, automobile paints, and the like. It is a common occurrence that different batches of dyes are used to colour textiles, and objects such as car parts are painted using different batches of paint.
  • the present invention provides a method and apparatus for analyzing the spectral reflectance properties of different batches of paints and dyes to determine whether they will appear to match well under different ambient lighting conditions.
  • the method described in the detailed description which follows uses the data senses by N+ l sensor classes to define a finite dimensional approximation of a surface reflectance function at each image point, and a finite dimensional approximation of the ambient light.
  • the algorithm is able to recover the coefficients that specify these approximations.
  • the fundamental physical components that play a significant role in the surface reflectance sensing method are (a) the ambient light, (b) the surface reflectances, (c) the sensors, and (d) the sensor responses.
  • the ambient light reflected from a surface will cause a strength of response in the k th class of sensor, at position x, according to
  • ⁇ x and ⁇ x are vectors
  • A is a matrix whose entries depend only on the ambient light.
  • Our algorithm describes a method for recovering the surface reflectance vectors, o x , and the lighting matrix, A , given only the sensor data information, ⁇ x .
  • recovery we mean specifically that in each region of the scene over which the ambient light is approximately uniform, we recover the light vector, ⁇ , except for an unknown multiplier, a, and correspondingly we recover estimates of the surface reflectance vectors up to the inverse of this unknown multiplier, 1 a ⁇ x .
  • Our recovery procedure specifies the relative spectral energy distribution of the ambient light, aE(A) and a corresponding set of reflectance functions 1 aS x ( ⁇ ). We require that there be at least as
  • a description of the physical environment and its relation to the perception of color gives insight into the problem and the novel method disclosed herein to solve it.
  • the objective of the method is to independently determine the ambient light in the scene under examination, then the surface reflectance of the objects.
  • Figure 1 is a plot of the relative spectral energy distribution of a typical daylight, E( ⁇ ).
  • Figure 2 is a plot of the spectral reflectance (i.e., [S( ⁇ )) tendency to reflect light at different wavelengths) of a particular substance, gold.
  • the initial stage of color vision is the absorption of light by photoreceptors in the eye or optical sensor.
  • Each kind of photoreceptor or sensor has a spectral sensitivity R to each wavelength of light and behaves essentially as a linear system. Different sensors will have a tendency to absorb different wavelengths at different parts of the physical spectrum.
  • the excitation recorded by a photoreceptor of the k'th class is then
  • the human eye contains four distinct photoreceptors, three of which are active in daylight (photopic) vision.
  • the information concerning color is reduced to three numbers, the excitations or "quantum catches" of the three photoreceptor classes at each location. These three numbers are determined by both the spectral distribution of the ambient light E(A) and the spectral reflectance S x ( ⁇ ) of objects at each location.
  • the problem of the surface spectral reflectance estimation may be put as follows.
  • the spectral reflectance at each location S x ( ⁇ ) is unknown.
  • N+l sensor classes will permit recovery of both the lighting parameters, ⁇ , and the surface reflectance parameters, c X , at each location.
  • S is a software system that runs under Bell Laboratories UNIX operating system on a variety of hardware configurations. S runs primarily on VAX computers made by the Digital Equipment Corporation; the code in Appendix A is written for such a computer, specifically a DEC VAX/780, running the 4.2BSD UNIX operating system. S is available through AT&T Technology.
  • the number of parameters required to have adequate models of ambient lights and surfaces may often be rather small. What data is available concerning spectral reflectances suggests that only a small number of parameters are needed to model most naturally occurring spectral reflectances. Recall that the number of sensors needed to capture N components of reflectance is at least N+l. We take the fact that biological systems have evolved with a rather small number of sensors as an indication that the number of degrees of freedom required to adequately represent spectral reflectance functions may also be quite small.
  • the spectral composition of the illuminant varies with spatial location.
  • the computation above can be extended in a straightforward ⁇ manner to the problem of estimating and discounting a slowly-varying (spatial lowpass) ambient light.
  • the ambient light is approximately constant.
  • the algorithm may thus be applied to each such local region of the image.
  • the new formulation also specifies how to construct automatic sensor systems capable of discounting spectral fluctuations in the ambient lighting. Using the analysis provided here the design of such systems can be specially tailored to working environments where the range of surfaces and lights may be measured before sensing begins.
  • FIG. 3 A block diagram of an illustrative system incorporating the present invention appears in Figure 3.
  • An array of sensors 10 is provided facing the object surfaces to be examined. At least one more sensor class need be provided than there are degrees of freedom in the surface reflectance elements to be examined.
  • sensors might include a camera with N+1 sensors responsive to every point of interest on the object; N+l emulsions on film; or other types of (N+l) sensor arrays.
  • the collected data (p x ) is processed 12 to develop the values of ⁇ x (surface reflectance) and ⁇ x (ambient light) needed to define every point on the surface in terms of both the surface spectral reflectance and the ambient light at each point on the object surface.
  • the values of the surface reflectance vector ⁇ x permit us to estimate the surface spectral reflectance at point x by Similarly the vector ⁇ defines an estimate of the ambient light
  • the values X, Y, Z precisely determine the desired output color for any particular device in terms of an agreed upon international color standard devised by the CIE.
  • CIE color coordinate system defined by the United States National Television Standards Committee (NTSC)
  • NTSC National Television Standards Committee
  • Y,I,Q color coordinate system defined by the United States National Television Standards Committee
  • the user may represent the results veridically, by using only the actually estimated values to determine the actual display values.
  • the user may wish to display the results as if they were measured under conditions that did not exist at the time of image acquisition. To accomplish this the user may display the colors using a light, E( ⁇ ), that is different from the actually obtained estimate of ⁇ .
  • E( ⁇ ) a light that is different from the actually obtained estimate of ⁇ .
  • the resulting display will have the appearance of being acquired under the assumed ambient light conditions, which may be quite different from the conditions under which the image was actually obtained.
  • the procedure permits a reconstruction of the image as if the image had been acquired under diffuse fluorescent light, sunlight, or any other desired ambient light.
EP85307425A 1984-10-15 1985-10-15 Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Farbmessung Expired - Lifetime EP0182496B1 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US660938 1984-10-15
US06/660,938 US4648051A (en) 1984-10-15 1984-10-15 Color imaging process

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0182496A2 true EP0182496A2 (de) 1986-05-28
EP0182496A3 EP0182496A3 (en) 1987-12-09
EP0182496B1 EP0182496B1 (de) 1992-09-16

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EP85307425A Expired - Lifetime EP0182496B1 (de) 1984-10-15 1985-10-15 Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Farbmessung

Country Status (6)

Country Link
US (1) US4648051A (de)
EP (1) EP0182496B1 (de)
JP (1) JPS61180118A (de)
KR (1) KR860003503A (de)
AU (1) AU578572B2 (de)
DE (1) DE3586650T2 (de)

Cited By (2)

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WO1995023481A1 (en) * 1994-02-28 1995-08-31 Trigt Cornelius Henricus Petru Color video system with illuminant-independent properties
AT505556B1 (de) * 2008-04-09 2009-02-15 Ipac Improve Process Analytics Verfahren zur farbanalyse

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US4884221A (en) * 1986-04-14 1989-11-28 Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha Color measuring apparatus
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US5089976A (en) * 1990-07-18 1992-02-18 Friends Of The Ucsd Library, Inc. Color normalization process
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US6129664A (en) 1992-01-07 2000-10-10 Chromatics Color Sciences International, Inc. Method and apparatus for detecting and measuring conditions affecting color
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US5495428A (en) * 1993-08-31 1996-02-27 Eastman Kodak Company Method for determining color of an illuminant in an image based on histogram data
JP3338569B2 (ja) * 1994-10-19 2002-10-28 富士写真フイルム株式会社 色温度推定方法、色温度推定装置、及び露光量決定方法
JPH10145582A (ja) * 1996-11-05 1998-05-29 Canon Inc 画像処理方法及び装置
US5907629A (en) * 1996-11-15 1999-05-25 Funt; Brian Vicent Method of estimating chromaticity of illumination using neural networks
WO1998055026A1 (en) * 1997-06-05 1998-12-10 Kairos Scientific Inc. Calibration of fluorescence resonance energy transfer in microscopy
US6271920B1 (en) 1997-12-19 2001-08-07 Chromatics Color Sciences International, Inc. Methods and apparatus for color calibration and verification
JP2001069525A (ja) * 1999-08-27 2001-03-16 Sharp Corp 画像処理方法
US6304294B1 (en) * 1999-10-15 2001-10-16 Sony Corporation Apparatus for and method of estimating the illumination of an image
SG103253A1 (en) * 2000-01-26 2004-04-29 Kent Ridge Digital Labs Method and apparatus for cancelling lighting variations in object recognition
US6556932B1 (en) * 2000-05-01 2003-04-29 Xerox Corporation System and method for reconstruction of spectral curves using measurements from a color sensor and a spectral measurement system model
EP1345656B1 (de) * 2000-12-21 2008-07-23 Orthoscopics Limited Apparat zur behandlung von symptomen unter verwendung von getöntem licht
US8493370B2 (en) * 2001-08-29 2013-07-23 Palm, Inc. Dynamic brightness range for portable computer displays based on ambient conditions
US6721692B2 (en) * 2001-08-30 2004-04-13 Xerox Corporation Systems and methods for determining spectra using dynamic least squares algorithms with measurements from LED color sensor
US6584435B2 (en) * 2001-08-30 2003-06-24 Xerox Corporation Systems and methods for determining spectra using dynamic karhunen-loeve algorithms with measurements from led color sensor
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US8055063B2 (en) * 2003-09-30 2011-11-08 Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc. Methods and systems for improving robustness of color balance correction
US7352895B2 (en) * 2003-09-30 2008-04-01 Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc. Systems and methods for illuminant model estimation
US7356180B2 (en) * 2003-09-30 2008-04-08 Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc. Systems and methods for correcting image color balance
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KR100571825B1 (ko) * 2003-11-28 2006-04-17 삼성전자주식회사 가변형 스펙트럼의 분해능 향상을 위한 분광 성분 분석방법 및 그 장치
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Cited By (2)

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1995023481A1 (en) * 1994-02-28 1995-08-31 Trigt Cornelius Henricus Petru Color video system with illuminant-independent properties
AT505556B1 (de) * 2008-04-09 2009-02-15 Ipac Improve Process Analytics Verfahren zur farbanalyse

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
KR860003503A (ko) 1986-05-26
AU4852385A (en) 1986-04-24
US4648051A (en) 1987-03-03
EP0182496B1 (de) 1992-09-16
EP0182496A3 (en) 1987-12-09
DE3586650D1 (de) 1992-10-22
JPS61180118A (ja) 1986-08-12
AU578572B2 (en) 1988-10-27
DE3586650T2 (de) 1993-02-11

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